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Teaching aim: Portraying of the population development in Canada with special emphasis on the general importance and implications of immigration in a multicultural society.
Keywords: Phases of immigration, multiculturalism, cultural interaction, ethnic conflicts, Native people, self determination |
A few defining periods of immigration underlie much of the broad population
distribution and composition of Canada, and they will help us appreciate
the present demographic characteristics of the country. There was no large
migration of French immigrants to New France; only about 10,000 people
migrated from France to the colony, and very few migrants from France came
after the Conquest. The present population of well over six million people
of French origin in Canada, centred in Quebec, is the result of a very
high birth rate over almost four centuries, although at present the birth
rate of Quebec is low, just as elsewhere in North America. In the 1780s,
there was a large migration into the British North American colonies of
about 50,000 Loyalist refugees [1]
mainly of British origin, fleeing from the newly formed United States mainly
into what are now the Maritime provinces and southern Ontario. In the 1820s
to 1840s, there were massive migrations from Great Britain to the same
general territories where the Loyalists had gone, and some people came
as well from other European countries, including Germany.
In the last years of the nineteenth century, continuing into the twentieth
century until World War I halted it abruptly, there was the largest migration
that Canada has ever experienced. In this explosive population movement,
immigrants, continued to come to Canada from Great Britain, but they also
poured in from Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, and the United States,
and had a particularly strong impact on the settlement and resource development
of the West, from Manitoba right through to British Columbia. That was
when a large proportion of the potential Prairie farmlands were occupied.
After World War II, in the late 1940s to the 1970s, there was another great
thrust of newcomers. This flow was at first particularly strong from southern
Europe, including many immigrants from Italy, Portugal and Greece. In the
1960s, numerous immigrants started to come from the Caribbean area, including
Barbados, Haiti, Jamaica, and Trinidad, and in the 1970s to '90s, increasingly
from Asia, the Middle East, and Central and South America. They tend to
go to the main cities in Ontario and British Columbia (see
table). In recent years, about 200,000 legal immigrants [2]
arrive annually in Canada, consistently the second highest number in the
world after those going to the United States, and proportionate to population
the most significant in the world.
Multiculturalism
The various streams of immigration to Canada have produced a population
of great ethnic variety [3].
In collecting data on ethnicity, the most recent Canadian Censuses define
a person to be of single ethnic origin when a respondent provides
one ethnic origin only, and to be of multiple ethnic origin when
a respondent provides two or more ethnic origins. In the 1996 Census, out
of a total population of 28,528,125, 64% of Canada's population reported
that they were of single ethnic origin and 36% of multiple origin.
In 1996, the proportion of Canada's population with some British (English,
Scottish, Irish, and Welsh) ethnic heritage, i.e. adding together single
and multiple respondents to the ethnic origins question in the Census,
was 37%, and with some French ethnic heritage, similarly defined, the proportion
was 17%. These figures cannot be usefully added, because there would be
double counting. To avoid that we have to turn to the single ethnic
origin figures. Persons of British origin have tended to mix more with
persons of other ethnic groups than people of French origin have tended
to do, and the figures for single ethnic origin in the Canadian
1996 Census, indicate that 15% of Canada's population was of French origin,
18% of British, and 67% of other single origins. But of the later
group just over 5 million claimed to be just simply Canadian (29% of all
singles). Another 3.5 million with multiple ethnic claims that they
still were partly Canadian (34% of all multiple ethnic dominants).
Clearly more and more people see themselves as Canadians with Canadian
ethnic backgrounds [4].
The interactions between the British Canadian and the French Canadian
cultures has been a fundamental factor in the development of Canada. For
centuries French Canadians survived as a people with a distinctive culture,
assisted to a considerable degree by the protective role of the Roman Catholic
church at a time when much economic control in Quebec was in the hands of British
Canadians. In the 1960s, in what has been called the Quiet Revolution [5],
fundamental changes occurred in Quebec. French Canadians moved into more
powerful positions in the economy, nationalized selected economic activities,
and the church lost its dominant position in the secular life of the population
and the role of the state became stronger.
In the 1960s, a Royal Commission established by the federal government
investigated the relations between French and British Canadians. Following
these studies, Canada in 1969 was declared a bilingual country by the federal
government with two official languages English and French. Two years later,
in 1971, the federal government recognized that there were many ethnic
groups within the country, and Canada was designated a multicultural society,
and a statement that Canada had a multicultural population was incorporated
into the revised Canadian Constitution of 1982 [6].
The idea of multiculturalism [7]
has its complications. Some feel that the official recognition of the many
cultures that immigrants brought with them weakens the formation of a Canadian
identity. People acknowledge as self evident the existence of these ethnic
identities in Canadian society, but challenge whether government funds
should, for example, be made available for sponsoring local cultural events
based in ethnic communities. Acculturation is inevitable. In the prairies,
where there was a great mixing of cultures in the early 20th century, by
the third generation descendants of immigrants from non-British and non-French
societies have been taking a strong role in Canadian communities, and assumed
leadership positions in government, while at the same time still respecting
their ethnic origins. Central Canada, where the migration of peoples from
numerous diverse cultures is more recent, is just experiencing this transition.
Sometimes, sadly, there is discrimination by individuals from one ethnic
group against persons of another group, but this is not as widespread as
it was a few generations ago, and not publicly condoned. Every province
has a Human Rights Commission [8], to which complaints of discrimination can be directed, and furthermore since World War II there has been greater knowledge of various ways of
life in Canada and the world and mutual respect amongst cultures within
Canada.
Native peoples
There are approximately one million people with at least some Native
aboriginal origin in Canada, composed of Indians, Metis [9]
(usually originally children of Indian mothers and European fathers) and
Inuit [10].
In the 1996 census about half million claimed to be aboriginal single ethnic
origin. The Indians are widely distributed in southern Canada and
in the forested zones to the north, with the largest concentrations in
Ontario and British Columbia. The Metis live in the same areas, but their
largest numbers are in western Canada. The Inuit are in the Arctic, mostly
in isolated settlements on coasts in Labrador and northern Quebec, on the
west coast of Hudson Bay, in the Arctic islands, and on the northern mainland
coast.
After Europeans arrived in large numbers, Indians were persistently
pushed back from any lands potentially suitable for agriculture. They were
forced to live on small tracts of land in the agricultural ecumene reserved
for their use (the reserves), or left to live in the large parts
of Canada toward the north that remained in forest. By treaties, signed
with the powerful new government authorities when the Indians were forced
to give up their lands, they were given small annual payments, and today
they receive subsidies for housing, education, and medical care. Even today
Indian groups living far from the densely settled areas of Canada
have been drastically affected by enormous resource projects in the forested
areas of Canada. This happened to the Cree of James Bay [11]
in Quebec, who "negotiated away" large areas where they had formerly trapped
to the the flooding of land and creation of reservoirs that resulted from
the immense Hydro-Quebec hydroelectric projects of the 1970s. The Inuit
of northern Canada did not sign treaties with the government until some
recent agreements, and never have had land reserves. Nevertheless their
culture was also profoundly affected by the outside world, especially after
the arrival of the airplane, and the shift after World War II from a nomadic
existence to living in nucleated settlements.
Severe economic problems exist amongst most Canadian Native peoples.
On one hand it is very difficult to make a living on the limited resource
base of the reserves, and on the other by trapping in the forest lands
because of international boycotts against wearing furs thus destroying
the market. In the Far North, only a limited number of jobs are available
in the service sectors of the settlements. A strong welfare dependency
has emerged because of widespread poverty.
Since the 1960s, Native peoples in both spirit and action have increasingly
moved out from under the guardianship of government and other agencies.
They have been attaining self administration in their schools and local
government. Also they have been fighting for greater control of their regional
land resources, and seeking compensation for the territories taken from
them, in what are termed land claims cases. Some of these land claims [12]
have been settled, and individual Native groups given compensation by the
federal government, including control over designated tracts of land, and
considerable sums of money to be invested in economic development.
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Questions for further consideration:
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[1]
http://members.tripod.com/~war1812/loyalists.html
[2]
http://www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/demo34a.htm
[3]
http://www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/demo18a.htm
[4]
http://www.statcan.ca/english/census96/feb17/eo2can.htm
[5]
http://www.mqup.mcgill.ca/book.php?bookid=1134
[6]
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0810115.html
[7]
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/multi/what-multi_e.cfm
[8]
http://www.gov.nb.ca/hrc-cdp/e/indexh.htm
[9]
http://www.metisresourcecentre.mb.ca/index.htm
[10]
http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/pr/info/info114_e.html
[11]
http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/CulturalViability/Cree/Feit1/index.html
[12]
http://www.ualberta.ca/~esimpson/claims/introduction.htm
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